Fw: [Wsjt-x-improved-community] FT2 successfully reverse engineered as open source!
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David Tanks
Feb 24, 2026, 9:42:31 AM (10 days ago) Feb 24
to valleyhams
FT2 is being incorporated into WSJT-X Improved beta version in
a future release after reverse-engineering the FT2 program that
the Italian ham came up with and refused to provide the open-source
code for it as the GPL license calls for.
David AD4TJ
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Uwe, DG2YCB via Wsjt-x-improved-community <wsjt-x-impro...@lists.sourceforge.net>
To: Wsjt Improved <wsjt-x-impro...@lists.sourceforge.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2026 at 07:30:33 AM EST
Subject: [Wsjt-x-improved-community] FT2 successfully reverse engineered as open source!
Hi all
I just wanted to let you know that we have successfully reverse-engineered FT2 mode into open source (see screenshot below)!
Apart from whether an FT2 mode alongside FT4 makes sense at all, in my eyes the best answer to the brazen behavior of this Italian group was to simply reverse engineer “IU8LMC's” FT2 mode and publish it as open source. Just on principle! To take the wind out of the sails (as we say here in DL) of people who obviously have fame and/or money primarily in mind.
You should know that the history of FT2 goes back to experiments by Joe and Steve in early 2019 (at that time with a TR period of 2.5s). Later it was introduced as FT4, first with 5s TR period, and then with 7.5s because with 5s the success rate of QSOs was not good enough.
IU8LMC introduced "his" FT2 mode with slightly modified parameters (3.8s TR period). He is free to do so, provided he clearly states what “his” FT2 mode is ultimately based on, and that he publishes the source code. But he refused. Such a behavior is not only a violation of GPLv3, it is also the opposite of ham spirit and contradicts Joe's and our open source approach for WSJT-X! Furthermore, it is unfair, as "his" Decodium program is nothing more than a (poorly working) fork of our (now obsolete) joint WSJT-X and WSJT-X Improved 3.0.0-rc1 250915 release. This means, that 99.5 % of "his" Decodium software is based on our work. ("His" Decodium program is currently full of bugs, by the way.)
Nevertheless, according to PSKReporter statistics, almost 4,000 users are already using FT2 mode (within two weeks). This indicates that there seems to be some interest in the market for such an ultra-fast mode. (Or maybe you are all just bored, and urgently needed something new to play with, hi). Let's see if FT2 proves itself alongside FT4, or if it's just a short-lived hype.
I haven't decided yet whether I will keep this new mode in WSJT-X Improved, but for the reasons mentioned above, I would like to release a new WSJT-X Improved (beta) version soon, where the FT2 mode is included open-source and in the usual "WSJT-X Improved quality".
I'm still in the process of optimizing a few things, but basically it's already working well. Stay tuned!
73 de DG2YCB,
Uwe
________________________________________
German Amateur Radio Station DG2YCB
Dr. Uwe Risse
eMail: dg2...@gmx.de
Info: www.qrz.com/db/DG2YCB
I just wanted to let you know that we have successfully reverse-engineered FT2 mode into open source (see screenshot below)!
Apart from whether an FT2 mode alongside FT4 makes sense at all, in my eyes the best answer to the brazen behavior of this Italian group was to simply reverse engineer “IU8LMC's” FT2 mode and publish it as open source. Just on principle! To take the wind out of the sails (as we say here in DL) of people who obviously have fame and/or money primarily in mind.
You should know that the history of FT2 goes back to experiments by Joe and Steve in early 2019 (at that time with a TR period of 2.5s). Later it was introduced as FT4, first with 5s TR period, and then with 7.5s because with 5s the success rate of QSOs was not good enough.
IU8LMC introduced "his" FT2 mode with slightly modified parameters (3.8s TR period). He is free to do so, provided he clearly states what “his” FT2 mode is ultimately based on, and that he publishes the source code. But he refused. Such a behavior is not only a violation of GPLv3, it is also the opposite of ham spirit and contradicts Joe's and our open source approach for WSJT-X! Furthermore, it is unfair, as "his" Decodium program is nothing more than a (poorly working) fork of our (now obsolete) joint WSJT-X and WSJT-X Improved 3.0.0-rc1 250915 release. This means, that 99.5 % of "his" Decodium software is based on our work. ("His" Decodium program is currently full of bugs, by the way.)
Nevertheless, according to PSKReporter statistics, almost 4,000 users are already using FT2 mode (within two weeks). This indicates that there seems to be some interest in the market for such an ultra-fast mode. (Or maybe you are all just bored, and urgently needed something new to play with, hi). Let's see if FT2 proves itself alongside FT4, or if it's just a short-lived hype.
I haven't decided yet whether I will keep this new mode in WSJT-X Improved, but for the reasons mentioned above, I would like to release a new WSJT-X Improved (beta) version soon, where the FT2 mode is included open-source and in the usual "WSJT-X Improved quality".
I'm still in the process of optimizing a few things, but basically it's already working well. Stay tuned!
73 de DG2YCB,
Uwe
________________________________________
German Amateur Radio Station DG2YCB
Dr. Uwe Risse
eMail: dg2...@gmx.de
Info: www.qrz.com/db/DG2YCB
Wsjt-x-improved-community mailing list
Wsjt-x-impro...@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wsjt-x-improved-community
Butch Washer
Feb 24, 2026, 10:13:18 AM (10 days ago) Feb 24
to David Tanks, valleyhams
Well, being one that does not use FT4 very much unless during contests, we shall see. I looked at the Improved version and did not care for the busyness and clutter of the screen. So o went back to regular for now.
Glad they got FT2 compliant and are going to test it. I may take another look at Improved again in the near future to see.
Butch N5SMQ
Sent from my iPhone
FT2 is being incorporated into WSJT-X Improved beta version in
a future release after reverse-engineering the FT2 program that
the Italian ham came up with and refused to provide the open-source
code for it as the GPL license calls for.
David AD4TJ
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Uwe, DG2YCB via Wsjt-x-improved-community <wsjt-x-impro...@lists.sourceforge.net>
To: Wsjt Improved <wsjt-x-impro...@lists.sourceforge.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2026 at 07:30:33 AM EST
Subject: [Wsjt-x-improved-community] FT2 successfully reverse engineered as open source!
Hi all
I just wanted to let you know that we have successfully reverse-engineered FT2 mode into open source (see screenshot below)!
Apart from whether an FT2 mode alongside FT4 makes sense at all, in my eyes the best answer to the brazen behavior of this Italian group was to simply reverse engineer “IU8LMC's” FT2 mode and publish it as open source. Just on principle! To take the wind out of the sails (as we say here in DL) of people who obviously have fame and/or money primarily in mind.
You should know that the history of FT2 goes back to experiments by Joe and Steve in early 2019 (at that time with a TR period of 2.5s). Later it was introduced as FT4, first with 5s TR period, and then with 7.5s because with 5s the success rate of QSOs was not good enough.
IU8LMC introduced "his" FT2 mode with slightly modified parameters (3.8s TR period). He is free to do so, provided he clearly states what “his” FT2 mode is ultimately based on, and that he publishes the source code. But he refused. Such a behavior is not only a violation of GPLv3, it is also the opposite of ham spirit and contradicts Joe's and our open source approach for WSJT-X! Furthermore, it is unfair, as "his" Decodium program is nothing more than a (poorly working) fork of our (now obsolete) joint WSJT-X and WSJT-X Improved 3.0.0-rc1 250915 release. This means, that 99.5 % of "his" Decodium software is based on our work. ("His" Decodium program is currently full of bugs, by the way.)
Nevertheless, according to PSKReporter statistics, almost 4,000 users are already using FT2 mode (within two weeks). This indicates that there seems to be some interest in the market for such an ultra-fast mode. (Or maybe you are all just bored, and urgently needed something new to play with, hi). Let's see if FT2 proves itself alongside FT4, or if it's just a short-lived hype.
I haven't decided yet whether I will keep this new mode in WSJT-X Improved, but for the reasons mentioned above, I would like to release a new WSJT-X Improved (beta) version soon, where the FT2 mode is included open-source and in the usual "WSJT-X Improved quality".
I just wanted to let you know that we have successfully reverse-engineered FT2 mode into open source (see screenshot below)!
Apart from whether an FT2 mode alongside FT4 makes sense at all, in my eyes the best answer to the brazen behavior of this Italian group was to simply reverse engineer “IU8LMC's” FT2 mode and publish it as open source. Just on principle! To take the wind out of the sails (as we say here in DL) of people who obviously have fame and/or money primarily in mind.
You should know that the history of FT2 goes back to experiments by Joe and Steve in early 2019 (at that time with a TR period of 2.5s). Later it was introduced as FT4, first with 5s TR period, and then with 7.5s because with 5s the success rate of QSOs was not good enough.
IU8LMC introduced "his" FT2 mode with slightly modified parameters (3.8s TR period). He is free to do so, provided he clearly states what “his” FT2 mode is ultimately based on, and that he publishes the source code. But he refused. Such a behavior is not only a violation of GPLv3, it is also the opposite of ham spirit and contradicts Joe's and our open source approach for WSJT-X! Furthermore, it is unfair, as "his" Decodium program is nothing more than a (poorly working) fork of our (now obsolete) joint WSJT-X and WSJT-X Improved 3.0.0-rc1 250915 release. This means, that 99.5 % of "his" Decodium software is based on our work. ("His" Decodium program is currently full of bugs, by the way.)
Nevertheless, according to PSKReporter statistics, almost 4,000 users are already using FT2 mode (within two weeks). This indicates that there seems to be some interest in the market for such an ultra-fast mode. (Or maybe you are all just bored, and urgently needed something new to play with, hi). Let's see if FT2 proves itself alongside FT4, or if it's just a short-lived hype.
I haven't decided yet whether I will keep this new mode in WSJT-X Improved, but for the reasons mentioned above, I would like to release a new WSJT-X Improved (beta) version soon, where the FT2 mode is included open-source and in the usual "WSJT-X Improved quality".
<2M5slOlHJg0wSRk7.png>
I'm still in the process of optimizing a few things, but basically it's already working well. Stay tuned!
73 de DG2YCB,
Uwe
________________________________________
German Amateur Radio Station DG2YCB
Dr. Uwe Risse
eMail: dg2...@gmx.de
Info: www.qrz.com/db/DG2YCB
_______________________________________________
Wsjt-x-improved-community mailing list
Wsjt-x-impro...@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wsjt-x-improved-community
Wsjt-x-improved-community mailing list
Wsjt-x-impro...@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wsjt-x-improved-community
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Randy
Feb 24, 2026, 12:03:29 PM (10 days ago) Feb 24
to Butch Washer, David Tanks, valleyhams
Sounds much like the Asterisk Allstar vs Hamvoip nonsense. One group "borrowed" code from the other, closed the source, renamed some files, then claimed to invent and own it.
Randy
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/valleyhams/9974A2B1-F3A7-43DA-A8B9-8E9501237A8E%40gmail.com.
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